Nearly half of construction rework starts with bad information. A takeoff is information.
FMI and PlanGrid found that nearly half of rework traces to wrong or missing project information. A fixture count is one of the first pieces of project information on a job, so the count has to carry its evidence with it.
The figure
48% of rework on US jobsites is caused by miscommunication and poor project data, at a cost of more than $31 billion in a single year.
FMI and PlanGrid surveyed 599 construction leaders for Construction Disconnected in 2018. Their finding: 48 percent of all rework on US jobsites was caused not by bad workmanship but by miscommunication and poor project data. FMI put the cost at more than 31 billion dollars for that year alone.
I run lighting takeoffs at an electrical contractor, and this number does not surprise me. A takeoff is project data. It is one of the first numbers created on a job and one of the last anyone questions. A wrong fixture count flows quietly into procurement, into labour hours, into the schedule, and it surfaces at buyout when the margin has already been spent.
Why totals hide the problem
A total is one number. If a fixture is counted twice on sheet E-202 and another is missed on E-203, the total is perfect and the takeoff is wrong twice. That is how bad data survives review: it looks fine from a distance.
What LumenTakeoff does about it
LumenTakeoff is built so a count cannot travel without its evidence. Every fixture family card in the review screen keeps four figures apart instead of blending them. Detected instances: every independently detected symbol. Production count: the exact-signature count, which grouping never changes. In bid scope: the new-work quantity after existing-to-remain and demolition are set aside. Tag on sheet: how many times the schedule tag actually appears on the drawing, shown as what the document states, with its discrepancy against the count, never folded into the count.
When the takeoff is locked in, the export carries an Evidence sheet naming where every number came from, and proof images with every counted instance ringed on the sheet. Bad data is data that cannot be checked. This can.
The machine counts. You decide.
Bring a plan set
See what LumenTakeoff finds.
Run a real lighting takeoff and review the result against the way your team works today.
- Supported vector plan sets
- Lighting fixture families and counts
- Evidence you can check against the drawing
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